No Way Out
by JetNoir
Summary: As time slowly runs out Ryan Chappelle prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice. Is based on events between 6:00am and 7:00am in the 3rd series of 24. Contains massive spoilers of the third series!


**24**

**NO WAY OUT**

****

**a fanfic by JetNoir**

**A/N:** The following story contains a MAJOR spoiler for Season 3 of 24, and portrays the death of a main character.

"**What's it going to be then, eh?"** – **A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.**

The following takes place between 6:56am and 7:00am

**6:56.00**

The Trainyard 

Its funny the way fate can lead you down unexpected pasts.

If you'd told Ryan Chappelle twenty four hours ago that he – the District Director of the Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit – would be dead at 7:00 the following day, he would have recommended that you should lock yourself up at the nearest lunatics asylum. Furthermore, if you had informed him that the Director of Field Operations – the notorious Jack Bauer – would be the one to pull the trigger, Chappelle might have locked you up himself.

But here he was. About to die.

A few hours earlier, a man called Stephen Saunders had informed the President of the United States that unless he ordered the death of Chappelle, he would release a deadly biological agent in the middle of any one of America's cities, and so the President had called Bauer and explained the dilemma. And Bauer was going to take care of it.

A few minutes earlier, Bauer's partner – Chase Edmunds – had led a failed operation to find Saunders. If he had succeeded, Ryan wouldn't have needed to die. But he had. And so...

Its funny the way fate can lead you down unexpected paths.

**6:57.00**

Somewhere in the distance a black van pulled up. Chappelle knew what it was for. It was for Saunders to pick up his body. His cold dead corpse. The van was unmarked, and there were no distinguishing features that he or Bauer could see from the chopper that they had used to get here.

Bauer pulled out a phone and dialled CTU.

"_Adam Kaufman_," was the reply.

"This is Jack. Have you got satellite coverage on my position now?"

"_Not yet, I'll reposition_."

"There's a black van, no plates. I'm sure they'll use countermeasures but do everything you can to follow it."

"_OK_."

The phone was hung up.

For a few moments there was a terrible, deathly silence in the chopper, until Jack broke it:

"We have to go Ryan."

"Yeah," whispered Chappelle, sweat dripping off his face. Bauer got out of the helicopter and moved to the passenger side to open the door, for the condemned man.

"My legs are shaking," said Chappelle surprised as he climbed out.

"I've got you," whispered Jack.

Together they walked side by side, executioner and innocent prisoner, until they reached a large area surrounded by the rusting hulks of trains.

**6:58.00**

"Ryan, is there anyone you want to talk to?" Jack asked, still whispering, as if a raised voice might wake the dead.

"What do you mean, to say goodbye?" replied Chappelle, his voice teetering on the brink of panic.

"To say whatever you have to." Chappelle took a deep breath and said:

"I have a brother I haven't spoken to in years. I don't have that many friends. Just the people at work. So, no. There's no one."

"I'm sorry, Ryan, we gotta do this. Get on your knees." Ryan did so; Jacks hand on his shoulder, his expensive suit falling towards the wet and dirty ground.

"All right," Ryan said suddenly, "there's no way around this, right Jack? We don't have any outs here."

"Not that I can see," Jack whispered.

He pulled out his pistol, and pulled the slide back; chambering a bullet.

"Wait!" said Ryan, a single tear slowly trickling down his cheek.

"I... Let me do this myself. At least give me the dignity of taking my own life. That's something you can do."

"No, Ryan, I can't do that."

"Yes, you can!" Ryan cried, "You were right, back at CTU, to put me under watch. I wasn't going out for a cigarette." Jack remembered this clearly; he suspected Ryan might run. Ryan continued:

"I _was_ trying to bolt. But I know this has to happen." Jack looked nervously towards the black van. Time was running out; the sand in the hourglass was trickling, but soon...soon.

**6:59.00**

"I can't take that chance," Jack said.

"I'm giving you my word, Jack!" Ryan pleaded, "I won't run. I swear. I-I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared, but I'm not gonna run. I couldn't live with myself, knowing I was responsible for the deaths of all those people. You gotta believe me." Ryan's face was trembling, as well as his voice, and Jack lowered his head. After a moments deliberation Jack looked up and silently handed Ryan the gun. Ryan nodded in acknowledgement, and stared at Jack; raised the gun to the side of his head; and closed his eyes.

Moments turned to seconds, and still nothing happened. Ryan's face screwed up in concentration, and then he let his hand, and head fall.

"I can't," he whispered, "I can't."

"Its all right," Jack whispered, taking the gun back. He moved behind Ryan's sorrowful face.

"I'm sorry we let you down, Ryan," Jack apologised. Ryan shook his head back and forth. Jack took a step back and raised the gun, carefully aiming at the back of the skull, so Ryan would feel no pain. He owed him that much. Jack took a moment to contemplate why he was doing this. District Director Ryan Chappelle had always been such a son of a bitch; once during the nuclear incident, withdrawing a helicopter _just_ as it reached him, and as such his principal witness died for lack of medical attention. But over the last few hours he had seemed to...soften. He had given the infected people at the hotel the option to humanly end their own lives if they so desired, and had helped more people then...Why did it have to come to this?

Knowing he only had seconds left, before the deadline of seven o'clock was reached Jack took a deep breath, and steeled his resolve.

"God forgive me," he muttered.

A single gunshot echoed plaintively around the desolate trainyard, signally the execution of an innocent.

The Death Of Ryan Chappelle.

**6:59.57**

**6:59.58**

**6:59.59**

**7:00.00**

**A/N:** 24 is my favourite TV show, so I was devastated when it was shown of Sky (which I don't have), so as soon as it came out on DVD I bought with money I had been saving up for six months. What I find so funny is that I convinced my mum (who never liked the look of 24) to watch the first episode with me. She became hooked and we watched the _whole_ of Season 3 in three days; stopping only to frantically make a sandwich then hurry back for the next episode. Now she is (what she calls) a '24 junkie'!

While watching this series (which in my opinion is by far the best) I was waiting to see who the 'sacrificial lamb' would be (we ended up with 3!) but I found Chappell's needless death to be the most poignant and powerful; so this my sort of eulogy for a memorable (but before this season) much-hated character.

Rest In Peace Ryan.

**Disclaimer:** 24; all its plotlines and characters have been created by Joel Sunrow and Robert Cochran, and the dialogue in this story was written by myself, Howard Gordon, and Evan Katz. 24 is copyrighted to Real Time Productions, Imagine Entertainment, and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; and the story to me.

This story has been written on the understanding that you may read it and print it out; but you may not pass it off as your own, hire it out, or sell it for money.

You also may not put it on your own or any other web page without my express written permission. Thankyou!

**JetNoir**


End file.
